31 December 2012
Abstract
This article tries to apply discourse analysis, as a research framework, to Iran’s foreign policy. Discourse analysis of foreign policy mostly focuses on language and rhetoric used by policy makers. Discourse analysis is not only related to comments and speeches made by Iranian officials, it also puts to test behavior which takes place in social context.
To this end, the author explores main political discourses shaping Iranian identity and foreign policy behavior since the Islamic Revolution. These discourses impose a particular revolutionary language on Iranian foreign policy, and give meanings to the country’s foreign policy behavior. This article assumes Iran’s foreign policy, initially and before starting its interactions with the international community, has been subject to revolutionary discourses as major resource for the country’s definition of its identity and interests. This discourse assumed to be a revolutionary identity: it is occasionally strengthened or moderated due to aggressive or non-aggressive normative environment at the international level. The discursive context at both the domestic and international levels will help us understand confrontational and non-confrontational relations between Iran and the western countries in post revolutionary era.
Keywords: Social Discourses, Constructivism, Identity, Articulation Foreign Policy, Aggressive and non-Aggressive Environment
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